Codename: GB6

I'm on the side of until people stop wanting to commit crime and do illegal stuff I'm all for it. Nothing to hide then you should not have a problem. It's how the world is becoming and you are going to hate me but I kind of want it like Enemy of the State.

Bill Gates' Gimp

Yeah, i still have a dot in the garage for use to play music. Works well with Spotify. Voice commands for some things with my home automation system is nice as well. There's also a Sonos One in the house, which also has Alexa built in.

Bill Gates' Gimp

Works great with Spotify. Just upgrade to the Ecobee 4 - Alexa built in. What were you planning to get or connect to? The dot is good for connecting to other speakers, the speaker in the dot itself is shit. If it's to be a standalone smart speaker that isn't connected to some better speakers, I'd look at the Echo or the Sonos One (more money of course)

Cheesemonger

I was wanting to to go with the Echo Plus which has a better speaker. Sonos is great, I looked at them at Costco, the two pack. Great sound and power. What is in the Ecobee 4 that the Ecobee 3 can't do?

Bill Gates' Gimp

I was mostly joking about the Ecobee 4. I don't know that there's much difference other than minor hardware changes and Alexa built in.

The Sonos Play:1 is a good speaker, they do work for Spotify devices you can play to easily from the Spotify app on a phone/tablet/PC. These are the ones that Costco carries as a 2 pack.

If you want a voice assistant and the same functionality, the Sonos One is basically the same speaker and has Alexa built in. There's some minor phyiscal differences to the buttons and look of this, but the speaker is the same as the Play 1.

Caulk Sucker

I'm on the side of until people stop wanting to commit crime and do illegal stuff I'm all for it. Nothing to hide then you should not have a problem. It's how the world is becoming and you are going to hate me but I kind of want it like Enemy of the State.

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
― Samuel Adams

Bill Gates' Gimp

You must have the Ecobee 4 if it has the ability to talk to alexa. They can all work with it, but only V4 has the mic/speaker built in to take Alexa commands.

By quality alone you are probably right, Sonos and Bose are likely similar. Both are decent, but no where near the best. Bose is just highly recognized. Sonos is just good at what they do and the Sonos One was one of the first non-Amazon speakers to have Alexa built in

Cheesemonger

Hooked up my Echo spot tonight, also bought a base for it (recommended). Setup was fast, installed app on my phone, then updated firmware on the device. It has a lot of faces to it. Also synced my Spotify to it and my Ecobee. Everything works flawless. I like how I can set different alarms just by telling it. I will setup my Echo plus later.

Cheesemonger

So last night was the first night with the Echo Spot. I didn't know that it has a nighttime mode where it turns the watch hands red. A lot of thought went into it. The alarm sound was so soothing when it went off this morning unlike my old one that sounded like a bullhorn. I also set it so that when you say "Alexa, Good Morning", it will tell me my local weather and then play some Fox news headlines. Pretty happy with it so far.

Cheesemonger

I'm telling you they work good, what impresses me is the response time. If I use Siri I have to go Hey Siri, then wait for a response, with Alexa you just talk like normal, you don't have to pause. @ndboarder can attest to this about how nice it is to control things with it.